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Well, that was the plan. Now some films, such as Harry Potter, have kept well to the books they’ve been based on, and done brilliantly. Others, like Bride & Prejudice, have been so different that the link is very slight between book and film, so that people can watch them if they like the book or not.
A well made film can be the equal of the book. The problem lies in making the adaptation well. Just having the book turned into a film isn’t possible; books aren’t written as film scripts. The adaptation of a book into a film line for line would in the case of most books result in something it would take almost as long to watch as it would to read. So the writers start cutting, the directors start “interpreting” and by the time the first camera starts rolling, there is every chance that the film could be miles from the book. Of course this is true of anything made into a film: life stories, historical events, plays, even other films. But what makes books such a target for the “Hollywood Treatment”? (Of course there are lots of other places that make films, but Hollywood is useful shorthand for the whole film industry.)
Well, for one thing there’s a lot of them, and a lot of those are out of copyright. Shakespeare, Austen, Homer, to name a drop in an ocean, are all free to turn into films, and as we saw in Troy, there’s no rule on the changes you can and can’t make. If you completely butcher the people’s favourite book, they won’t turn up to the cinema, which means you’ll lose money - so there is a reason to not completely wreck it. Another reason books are used is very often authors will have in mind locations that exist, which means it is very easy to film; books like The Da Vinci Code which include dozens of locations in the real world require less effort than a script where the location is “an industrial city” (unless the owner refuses filming permission). Also, if the author’s alive, they can often help with the script, casting and location finding, which means the film can often be finished quicker.
Another reason is that there’s a big audience. As well as the people that actually bought the book as a potential audience, there are all those people that want to sound like they read it. Let’s be honest, for a lot of people two hours watching a classic are enough, never mind the many hours needed to read one. Gone With The Wind is an amazing book, but it’s huge; the film saves you a lot of time, and is also one of the classics of cinema.
The key things to consider before seeing your favourite book on the silver screen are how accurately it has been converted, and how much you love the book. Because some books, no matter how faithfully they are adapted to film, will never be as good in a cinema as they are in your hands. And if you see a book you like butchered on screen, it will hurt.
As for the new Harry Potter? Well, I probably won’t see it. The books were one of my childhood favourites, and whilst I know they are magnificently well adapted (the attention to detail is impressive), it’s still too strange for me.
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